Is Solo Planning an Empire Strikes Back-Sized Twist?

Enfys Nest is a rather peculiar name. And as such, 'he' is turning out to be a rather peculiar character in general. Is this thing a man? A woman? An asexual space worm disguised in super cool Star Wars armor? The true verdict is out. But one interesting new theory has piqued our interest. And it would bring an epic Empire Strikes Back-like twist to Solo. Quit reading if you don't want any potential SPOILERS, because we're going down the rabbit hole on this one.

No one really ever talks about Han Solo's parents. Not in the way Rey's parents have been discussed since the release of The Force Awakens, or in the manner in which Luke and Leia's dad was ultimately revealed. Who are Han Solo's parents? I don't think anyone has ever really cared too much up until this point. No one has been debating the fact leading into the release of Solo. But now, there is building evidence that we may actually meet one of Han Solo's parents in Ron Howard's sprawling space adventure.

Will the powers that be, be so bold as to introduce Han Solo's mom in the next stand-alone Star Wars adventure? It would definitely come out of left field. And there is some evidence to back this up. And it all leads back to Enfys Nest. Who or what is this 'thing'?

A few weeks ago, a French magazine revealed the somewhat unexpected news that new Solo villain Enfys Nest was a female. Her legacy rests within the old Star Wars Legends universe, the Expanded canon that Disney jettisoned when they bought Lucasfilm. Ever since, Disney has been bringing back some of these character into the official canon, one at a time. Solo is said to actually introduce quite a few of these wayward aliens back into the fold.

Everyone accepted that Enfys was a girl, and moved on. No one at Lucasfilm ever corrected the reveal. And director Ron Howard, who has a pretty strong social media presence, never bothered to clarify this as untrue. But then, earlier this week, a more defined description of Enfys Nest showed up in an officially licensed Star Wars magazine. And it boldly and outright definitely calls this a male character. Mr. Nest is a man. Full blooded, no soy, havoc bringing. Or...Wait...What?

This all became really confusing really fast. And still, there is no definitive word on whether Enfys Nest is really a man or a woman, or someone who identifies as non-binary. At least not from anyone tied directly to Lucasfilm and Disney. Now we have a new theory as to what is actually going on here. Enfys Nest is a woman, pretending to be a man, so that we get the big Han Solo's mom reveal at the end of the movie. Say what?

None of this has been confirmed by anyone inside the Lucasfilm camp. This is just an interesting theory provided by popular comic book artist Ethan Van Sciver, who has been meticulously going over all sorts of minutia related to the Star Wars universe on his ComicArtistPro Secrets Youtube Channel. He is well known for the amazing Green Lantern work he's done over at DC along with a bunch of other titles. And he's a noted Rose Tico enthusiast. So if you can't trust him, who can you trust?

He posits that Lucafilm and Ron Howard really wanted the Enfys Nest reveal to be a big twist in the movie, and a French magazine leaked the info. Kathleen Kennedy's team has been rather cagey with their promotion of the movie, and perhaps Lucasfilm stayed quiet, putting out their own twist cover in this latest Star Wars magazine knowing 'trash' sites like this (as Sciver calls them) would pick it up and course correct the potential for such a big surprise to stay in tact.

Now, everyone is expecting the character to be male again. So the reveal that Enfys Nest is actually Han's mom will come as a shocking twist. If any of this is true, will fans buy it, though? Han has always been an orphan, and fans have never been clamoring for any type of parent reveal. Even if Nest isn't Han Solo's mom, Sciver does use an action figure comparison test to show how confident he is that Nest is really a women in disguise. Setting Nest up against Emilia Clark's Qi'Ra, both figures are the same size and stature, with the other male characters much larger and more beefed up in their physique. With the new Han Solo action figures all lined up together, yeah, Enfys Nest does look more like one of the female action figures just in size and stature alone. But that's not very good evidence.

One thing we haven't really heard anyone discuss is the meaning of the name Enfys Nest. Enfys is Welsh for Rainbow. The Rainbow Flag is the symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride and LGBT social movements. And the colors reflect the diversity of the LGBT community, as the flag is often used as a symbol of gay pride during LGBT rights marches. The fact that Enfys translates to rainbow is not a coincidence. Lucasfilm knows what it is doing when picking names. As a Welsh baby name, it is unisex, so it can be given to either a boy or a girl. See what they did there? Also, most fans are pronouncing the name wrong. It's not pronounced with an emphasis on the F and Y, it is pronounced EN-viss or sometimes En-vees. One thing we know for sure is that Enfys is connected to Han's mentor Tobias Beckett, played by Woody Harrelson. But we really don't know how yet.

So, is Solo going to spring an Empire Strikes Back like twist on unsuspecting audiences this May? Will we finally learn who Han Solo's real parents are? Some of Solo's ancestry has been traced in the old Legends canon, but we know nothing about it in the new official canon as it stands. Do we even want to know that as a collective fan base? I personally don't care if I learn the ol' space pirate's linage. He used to stand on his own as one of the best modern day characters ever written for the screen. It's too bad that we have to learn so much about him. That strips away the mystery. And that mystery is what the character is all about.